Hi all, I'm new. My name is Nicole and I'm from Saint John, NB, Canada. I don't have and rat-kids yet, but I'm hoping for some in the next month- 2 months. I've been lurking on this extremely helpful forum for about a week. . .and reading about things like bedding, housing, food, etc etc. I've also been to the local (and biggest) pet store in my area (Pet's Unlimited), and handled some of the rats last evening. . .they were very tame and I fell in love immediatley. . .they were so friendly! I've also found a rat-friendly vet in my area, picked out the cage I want: aSuper Pet Deluxe Critter Home (read elsewhere it was a good starter cage), and have looked at potential litter (Yesterday's News), toys, and food (Nutro Natural Lite with Donna D's formula or SueBee's formula with fresh fruits/veggies).
Now that I have all that figured out, there's some hurdles to overcome: I have a CAT, and I'm also going to be living in a very small apartment where the only sealable-off room is the bathroom. I know that I can't leave the rats and the cat alone unsupervised obviously, but I also know that the rats need time out of their cage. . .I thought that maybe ratty-playtime would have to be in the bathroom, a few hours in the day. And during the day when I wasn't home their cage could be kept in there, and then taken out in the main room when I was home and could supervise. . .could I introduce a year 1/2 old cat to baby ratties somehow (safely)? My goal would even have the rats not feel terrified while the cat was around. . .
Is this set-up viable do you think? Any comments, suggestions, advice, or opinions welcome!
Now that I have all that figured out, there's some hurdles to overcome: I have a CAT, and I'm also going to be living in a very small apartment where the only sealable-off room is the bathroom. I know that I can't leave the rats and the cat alone unsupervised obviously, but I also know that the rats need time out of their cage. . .I thought that maybe ratty-playtime would have to be in the bathroom, a few hours in the day. And during the day when I wasn't home their cage could be kept in there, and then taken out in the main room when I was home and could supervise. . .could I introduce a year 1/2 old cat to baby ratties somehow (safely)? My goal would even have the rats not feel terrified while the cat was around. . .
Is this set-up viable do you think? Any comments, suggestions, advice, or opinions welcome!